Stankiewicz & Fekete-Kovács Quintet (PL/HU)

Famous pianist Kuba Stankiewicz, who studied in America and achieved lasting success there, has played with the best of Polish jazz, from Namysłowski to Anna-Maria Jopek. With a penchant for melodic and even romantic music, he has collaborated with Peter Erskine on his Victor Young album recorded in Los Angeles and has recorded a Chopin song cycle with Inga Lendowska. His first album with Kornél Fekete-Kovács was released six years ago and he is also involved in the MAO's huge international project Art of Virus, which he performed in this country the year before last. Their collaboration is again supported by the Felczak Foundation.

Although the MAO's orchestra leader and the Polish pianist's ensemble draw on their earlier arrangements of Chopin and Bartók, it is a completely new programme. This time, the Chopin songs (Op. 47) will be performed in instrumental form, and the quintet will interpret themes from both Bartók's Mikrokozmos series and his violin duets. The third orchestrator will be saxophonist Kristóf Bacsó, MAO Principal Soloist and one of the MAO's principal orchestrators. The quintet will be completed by the big band's rhythm section, the dynamic drummer László Csízi and the highly skilled bassist József Barcza-Horváth.